SCCM OSD – Remove Press F12 for network service boot

This is a very simple post that shows how to remove Press F12 for network service boot. Suppose that you are going to image a new laptop. First of all you need to hit F12 because that is required when Network Service boot is not listed first in BIOS boot order.

So now select press F12 for network service boot. Notice that you again need to press F12 to pull the boot image and begin the SCCM OSD. Since default pxeboot.com triggers an F12 requirement, you can still bypass or remove Press F12 for network service boot step.

Yes this is possible and while this is quite an old trick, it still works good. I am sure many of you already configured this in your setup.

Note – Task sequence can be deployed to a collection as either Available or Required. When you deploy it as available, you will be prompted to hit F12 key for network service boot. However deploying the task sequence as required eliminates the need to press F12 key. In big organization, task sequences are always deployed as Available. If you are deploying TS as required, be careful specially if you have ZTI based installation.

SCCM OSD – Remove Press F12 for network service boot

Here are the simple steps that can help you bypass or remove Press F12 for network service boot. First of all understand that there are two important files located in SMSBoot folder of your PXE enabled distribution point.

pxeboot.com – The requirement to press F12 key is triggered by pxeboot.com file. This is sent by SCCM PXE server when you deploy TS as available.

pxeboot.n12 – This file doesn’t require F12 to be pressed. This is sent by SCCM PXE server when you deploy TS as required.

Here is a simple trick to bypass F12 for network service boot during SCCM OSD. Take a backup of both x64 and x86 folders located inside SMSBoot folder. The next step is to rename the default pxeboot.com to pxeboot.f12. Also rename pxeboot.n12 (which means no F12) to pxeboot.com. This will ensure that your TS which is deployed as Available, will eliminate the need of hitting F12 key for network service boot. In addition to that this must be done in both the x86 and x64 folder to make it functional.

Hi, I am Prajwal Desai. For last few years I have been working on multiple technologies such as SCCM / Configuration Manager, Intune, Azure, Security etc. I created this site so that I can share valuable information with everyone.